


In The Places Where We Don't Belong

by ALC_Punk



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Implied Thirteenth Doctor/Rose Tyler/Jack Harkness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 00:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16482557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALC_Punk/pseuds/ALC_Punk
Summary: Rose Tyler wasn't surprised the Doctor was a woman. Just that she'd broken the laws of time again. Mostly.





	In The Places Where We Don't Belong

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Not mine.  
> Inspiration: https://lyssisbored.tumblr.com/post/179637512405/nothing-as-powerful-as-people-complaining-about  
> Notes: Not sure how in character this is, not sure I care, as I couldn't stop writing it as soon as it blew into my brain. 
> 
> Er, minorly vague Rose/Handy reference.

Rose frowned as she stared at the woman who was grinning back at her from what had once been the wall of her flat. "Do I know you?"

"Oi! 'Course you do," beaming at her, the Doctor reached out to poke her in the shoulder. "And you're real, too Rose Tyler, as I live and breathe."

Tilting her head to the side, Rose looked the woman up and down, taking in the naff fashion sense as well as the slightly crazed look in her eyes. A sigh escaped her. Of course. One didn't travel with an idiot in a box for too long without getting to realize when he'd changed faces. Again. Though a woman was a new one on Rose. "Y'know, I thought you said breaking the wall between dimensions was a bad idea?"

"Oh, it is. But this was an accident." Looking round, the Doctor frowned. "Where's the other one, eh? And Ricky? No, Mickey. That was it."

"Gone. Took over Torchwood Brasilia and faffed off with half my staff." With a shrug, Rose stepped forward to look out the hole in her wall. "Don't suppose you do paintin'?"

"What?"

"The wall, Doctor." Crossing her arms, Rose tried to glare. She did. 

But the woman in front of her was new, different, and smiling like a loon. It was the infectious sort of smile that had gotten her in trouble on more than one occasion. 

"Oh. Sorry. Don't do walls. But I am trying new things. Reaching out and making friends. I thought of getting myself a flat, but that seemed a bit stalkery."

Not willing to interrupt, nevertheless, Rose snorted. "Yeah, can see how acting like a normal Earth-dwelling human'd be stalkery."

"Think of all the furniture I'd have to borrow!"

Remembering how often she'd had to cough up the dosh, Rose rolled her eyes. Pointing out that furniture should generally be _bought_ seemed pointless. And why she cared, she didn't know. 

After all, it wasn't as though she were a part of the Doctor's life. This one, at least. She had a whole universe to herself on the other side of dimensional walls. And she--he--had left her on her own, said goodbye. There wasn't a future with a man who couldn't look past his own bloody nose. She knew that now just as much as she'd known it then, even if she'd never wanted to admit it. 

They could have traveled forever, but she'd had to let that go. 

Everyone had to grow up, after all. 

"You're thinking too hard. Or is that me?"

The Doctor was suddenly right up against her, leaning into her personal space and breathing in her face. They were more of a height, now. Rose could move forward and kiss her without half-trying. That was new. Different. Not sure she liked it, Rose still didn't step back or lean away. 

She was here first, after all. 

Wrinkling her nose, the Doctor closed the last few inches and brushed a kiss over Rose's lips. "Definitely don't do walls. And probably not flats. Think I might do this, though."

Being kissed by a woman wasn't what Rose was used to. Being kissed by the Doctor, or a version at least, yeah. A part of her had never felt it was the same, though. That there would be something different, something better, about kissing the genuine article. In her weaker moments, she'd thought of fire-works and chocolate cakes, piles of ice cream and enough dosh to swim in. Perhaps that had been the day-old chips. 

Still, she had to admit that being kissed by the Doctor, even as a woman, was... her lips tingled a little, her mouth opened without her letting it. 

Electricity ran down her spine, and she dimly considered whether this was a side-effect of the recent lightning storm that had preceded the last alien incursion. That'd been days before, though. There couldn't still be leftover zingers in the air, could there?

No. No, kissing the Doctor was better.

Rose leaned in the last few inches, one hand coming up to cup the other woman's cheek. Her skin was soft under Rose's fingertips, her lips slightly-chapped, but the right shape, the right texture--

A gasp escaped one of them, and the kiss deepened, tongues darting here and there, chasing each other about and generally doing things tongues did in the midst of an excellent snog. 

Hands were slipping here and there, stroking over clothed sides, backs--Rose cupped a _quite_ firm arse, and appreciated it wholly, even without being able to look it over. The woman in front of her, _Time Lord_ didn't seem to object to being groped. 

Eventually, they had to breathe, and Rose let the Doctor pull back. She leaned in, bracing her forehead against Rose's, their noses brushing against each other. 

"So," the Doctor said. "That was a bit of all right, then."

Hand still firmly upon the other woman's arse, Rose smirked a little. "You still owe me a wall, Doctor. But after?"

"Yeah?"

"I want it all."

And that was what the Doctor gave her. Sure, there were side-trips and detours, and that time when they were sentenced to death on twelve different planets. Monsters chased them, dictators ordered their livers for brunch, thieves stole one or two of their hearts along the way. But in general... In general, Rose knew she had come home. 

Even if it was no longer her home, and even if she knew it could never last. For time was not immutable, and humans aged at a perfectly normal rate. Even with a tiny part of the TARDIS still a part of her (Bad Wolf was something she'd pretended to forget, after all), there was no preserving her past a certain age. Not unless she wanted to become something like Cassandra. And Rose would far rather die of old age in a pensioner's bedsit than become nothing more than a facile piece of skin, determined to conquer the world in her own image.

That's what she told herself. And it was what she believed until it was over.

But before the end, there were a rather lot of rollicking good adventures (as the Doctor said), fights, make-up sex (which the Doctor excelled at; Rose sometimes found the most ridiculous reasons to start an argument), saving the world, twisted history, re-written time, and more than a few flirtations with Jack.

Though they'd both slapped him. 

It was a glorious life, and she wouldn't have traded it for the universe (she almost had).

-f-


End file.
